Isra-Mart srl: The Canadian way on the environment

www.isramart.com

The federal government seems to be embracing the role of international wet blanket on the environment file.

Not only did Environment Minister Peter Kent vowed “not to cave” to international pressure to take on new climate change commitments at the Durban talks next month, but Foreign Minister John Baird recently took a few minutes to pour cold water (and here) on Australia’s carbon tax policy, saying neither Canada nor the U.S. would ever introduce an emissions trading scheme.

Baird, who was in Australia last month to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings was quoted in the newspaper The Australian as having “cast doubt on the fundamental analysis underpinning Australia’s carbon tax policy.” The policy has since become law.

According to The Australian, Stephen Harper’s government “won an absolute majority in the Canadian Parliament for the first time by advocating a policy of no-carbon tax and no ETS.” He also said it is unlikely the U.S. would introduce a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.

The Australian said Baird’s comments were ”devastating” for Julia Gillard’s Labour government “because if the U.S. and Canada do not go down a market road for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it is impossible that anything remotely resembling a global market could emerge.” Even more devastating, said the newspaper, “is Mr. Baird’s judgment that carbon-trading schemes are inherently unreal and non-productive.”

Baird likened market mechanisms for dealing with greenhouse gases to a “pyramid marketing scheme. You don’t have to sell this dog food, you just have to get 10 of your friends to sell it and get the royalties from that.”